The Cross Section - RMB Blog

A Time Named By Its Detractors The years 500-1400 AD have been called different things, all of them dismissive.  They are called Medieval which conjures thoughts of mercilessness and savagery.  The saying "to go Medieval on somebody's..." refers more properly to the Paleolithic era before civilization not the time following the fall of Rome.  These years are also called the Middle Ages.  The thought is that it was merely a time between two others.  Apparently nothing important happened from the end of the last great Ancient civilization until the start of the modern world.  It says "nothing to see here, move along to the Renaissance."  The third name for these years was created by the philosophers of the Enlightenment, the Dark Ages.  Of course they were biased.  According to them, they had to bring light to the darkness of the preceding years.  Those in the Enlightenment placed all their faith in reason.  To them anything else was ...

"For as a man  thinks within himself, so he is." - Solomon, 10th Century BC "I think, therefore I am." - Rene Descartes, 1637 AD "People are unique in the inner life of the mind - what they are in their thought world determines how they act." - Francis Schaeffer, 1976 AD Within "How Should We Then Live?", Francis Schaeffer explains the course of thought in Western Civilization, evaluates it according to his Biblical worldview, and clarifies how wisdom should guide us into the future.                " To understand where we are in today's world - in our intellectual ideas and in                   our cultural and  political lives - we must trace three lines in history, namely, the                   philosophic, the scientific,  and the religious." Schaeffer was a Christian theologian and philosopher who set up L'Abri in ...

Another thing I wrote a couple of years ago, discussing how Progressive politics comes out of the Social Gospel. The Social Gospel comes from taking the supernatural or spiritual out of Christianity. This is short so I don't cover everything there is about this progression. I am sure those reading will notice some obvious things I left out, but I wanted to focus on the religious, spiritual aspects, not so much the political. Paul wrote a letter toward the end of his life that in places sounds ominous.  Read the following verses and imagine a wind hardened face with kind eyes, an old man who looks frail.  But then he speaks, not with eloquence necessarily, but with undeniable authority. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, hater...

In Ordered Individualism - Part 1 , I defined Ordered Individualism as a theory saying each person in society should be valued and their interests made a priority, similar to individualism.  But at the same time, no person should attempt to live isolated from others or seek to free themselves from traditional human relationships.  We are emotionally healthy when we are both recognized as unique and committed to act for the benefit of others.  Part 2 will look at 3 examples of why that is and how it works itself out practically.  First, let's examine the structure of the family. Individuals In The Family Probably the best description of God's design for families is found in Ephesians 5:22-6:4: Ephesians 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their...

The fundamental social phenomenon is the division of labor and its counterpart human cooperation. - Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, p. 151 Who would ever expect to read such a beautiful statement within a 900+ page treatise on economics?  But there it is, at the foundation of capitalism, private property, money, banking and interest rates, is human cooperation.  Such a succinct yet meaningful definition of society, the division of labor facilitating human cooperation.  That's it.  As I read Human Action last year I was struck at how Biblical it sounded.  It was like a study of anthropology in a systematic theology course.  It wrestled with questions like, what are humans and how do they properly live out life?  Then, I thought about the competing ideas of individualism and collectivism.  In this one sentence you see the importance of individuals from the comment about the division of labor.  You also see how no one person is an island to them...

Here is something else I wrote about years ago, looking at the value the Bible places on the individual.  If God relates to persons more than groups how does that affect the way we see human interaction.  I posted this now as an intro into a longer article that I am in the process of writing, describing further my thoughts on God's created order and how we fit into it. If you find my thoughts interesting, please make a comment below and tell a friend.  Peace! The President of the United States of America (not the awesome music group) many times is referred to as “The Leader Of The Free World”.  Where do we get this idea from?  The Free World.  What are we freed from?  What are we now free to do?  Somewhere in the corner of your mind I hope you realize the question is to you individually.  If you don’t get to exercise freedom in your own specific life, is it really worth anything? A place to start to understand freedom is in the letter Paul wr...

The Search For Knowledge As a kid I thought I wanted to be an archaeologist, based solely on watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The coolest thing about Indiana Jones had to be the whip.  But the idea of digging in the dirt and uncovering a priceless artifact sounded really exciting too.  They were priceless, even though pieces of bone or pottery, building ruins, and ancient tools don't have value in and of themselves, There is nothing you can do with them.  They are falling apart or are completely outdated.  Yet, they provide valuable knowledge about long forgotten cultures.  Universities, collectors, or museums will pay large amounts of money for them not for their utility but for what they can teach us. The search for knowledge at an archaeological excavation is the same as the search for any other kind of knowledge.  You must dig beneath the surface.  You must search high and low.  The wisest man in history, Solomon, ...